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Talk:Ladies of the Wood/@comment-82.27.172.16-20150623132905
Spoilers ahead* I personally think the 'good' option here is to kill the tree spirit. The book 'She Who Knows' explains that the spirit is an evil entity. The Crones clearly are evil too but they get their comeuppance in the end. I think the Baron is mostly misunderstood. He seems like a good man stuck in a bad situation and is trying his best to cope. He clearly loves his wife, a woman who he has lavished with luxuries and affection. She however detests him, pushes him to drink and provokes him to violence, even turning their daughter against him and going so far as to make a pact with the crones to kill their unborn daughter, a daughter he begs you not to harm and turn into a lubberkin. He makes a concerted effort to try and reconcile with his now estranged daughter and desperately pushes Geralt to find his wife despite her ill treatment of him. Even once she is found he drops everything to try and save her life or commits suicide if she is beyond saving. Nobody can argue that he doesn't love his family. As for his men pillaging and raping? If you walk around Crows Perch you can overhear his men talking about how the Baron has prohibited his men from raping the peasant folk although they choose not to listen to him. He isn't pillaging either, he is essentially taxing the local peasantry to provide funds / food to the Nilfgaardian army on their behest. The peasantry obviously complain about this but the Baron is essentially trying to protect them from the Nilfgaardians. He has seen which way the wind blows and is trying to secure a position as ruler of Velen should the Nilfgaardians triumph, a position that he can use to protect them. It's mentioned that he had friends in high places in Temeria and so is likely to be more understanding and affectionate of the Temerian people and their way of life than a Nilfgaardian ruler would be. He has his flaws but don't we all? I wanted him to survive. I wanted the villagers of Downwarren to survive, they weren't the only village sending their children to the fate of the crones. Gretka, who Ciri saved from the Wolves mentions she was sent down the trail of treats by her father and they hail from Lindenvale. Walking around some of the villages you can hear the folk talking of sending their kids down the trail of treats as they can't afford to feed them anymore. These aren't bad people, they are desperate people trying to survive in a land gripped with war, famine and pestilence. The people are starving and afraid and so turn to religion and superstition to find comfort. The evil comes from the Crones who only provide protection if their followers sacrifice their children and disfigure themselves in their name. The people of Velen are alreading suffering from war, famine, pestilence, senseless violence and rape and can only find small comfort in a malevolent 'guardian'. Releasing another evil upon them seems to me to be the 'bad' choice. Two wrongs don't make a right. The five orphans might be sacrificed but they were already condemned to death or a life of horror regardless, so perhaps it was actually a warped sort of kindness to let them die.